Ericsson Posts Strong Q1 Driven by Base Station Sales

Ericsson's overall sales in Q1 2011 rose to SEK 53.0 billion, up 17% year-over-year and down -16% sequentially. Sales for comparable units, adjusted for currency exchange rate effects and hedging, increased 25% year-over-year.


"Group sales in the quarter increased by 17% year-over-year driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband and especially for the multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000," says Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.


The increase in Group sales was driven by segment Networks where revenues grew 35% year-over-year with an EBITA margin of 20%. The strong demand for mobile broadband resulted in five out of ten regions showing growth year-over-year. Countries with especially strong growth were the US, India, Japan, Korea and Russia. China had continued good momentum for 2G.


Global Services sales decreased -4% year-over-year primarily due to currency exchange rate effects. In local currencies Professional Services grew 3%. EBITA margin decreased to 7% in the quarter mainly due to lower profitability in Network Rollout. Managed Services was flat compared to the first quarter 2010, but grew 11% year-over-year in local currencies driven by a number of new smaller contracts.


Segment Multimedia sales were flat year-over-year while EBITA margin dropped to -7%, mainly due to product mix. Our joint ventures showed mixed performance. Sony Ericsson contributed with a profit before tax of SEK 0.1 b. while ST-Ericsson's loss amounted to SEK -0.6 b.
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